If the servant thwarts him at this level, he moves him to the fifth level: occupying him with permissible things that carry neither reward nor punishment. Their only consequence is the loss of the reward he has missed by occupying himself with them.

If the servant thwarts him at this level—guarding his time jealously, knowing the value of his breaths, that they will come to an end, and the bliss or torment that depends on how he uses them—he moves him to the sixth level: occupying him with deeds of lesser merit at the expense of those of greater merit, so as to deprive him of excellence and make him miss the reward of the better deed. He therefore urges him to perform a good deed of lesser merit, encourages him to do it, and makes it attractive to him whenever this entails abandoning something better and loftier. Few people notice this. When someone finds within himself a powerful impulse urging him towards an act that he has no doubt is an act of obedience, he scarcely thinks to say, “This impulse is from Satan,” reasoning that Satan does not command good. Seeing that this is something good, he says, “This impulse is from Allah.”

He is excused, for his knowledge has not extended to the fact that Satan may command seventy kinds of good, either to use them as a means of leading someone to a single kind of evil, or to make him miss a good greater, loftier and better than all those seventy kinds.

This can only be discerned through a light from Allah that He casts into the servant’s heart. It comes through undivided adherence to the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, and keen attention to the ranks of deeds before Allah: which are most beloved and pleasing to Him, most beneficial to the servant, and most comprehensive in sincere devotion to Allah, His Messenger and His Book, and in sincere concern for His believing servants, both those of distinction and ordinary believers. Only those who are among the Messenger’s heirs, his deputies within the Muslim community and his successors on earth recognize this. Most people are veiled from it; it never even occurs to them. Allah bestows His bounty upon whomever He wills among His servants.

When the servant thwarts him at all six levels and defeats his efforts, he unleashes his followers among humans and jinn against him with every kind of harm: declaring him an unbeliever, accusing him of misguidance and religious innovation, warning others against him, and seeking to consign him to obscurity and extinguish his influence. His aim is to disturb his heart, preoccupy his mind with the struggle against them, and prevent people